SCHOOL UNION: EDUCATION MINISTRY CONTINUES POOR POLICY

ZAGREB, May 10 (Hina) - The Croatian School Union 'Preporod' believes that the first 100 days of the work of the Education and Sport Ministry can be described as the continuation of the poor policy conducted by the authorities led by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in the past nine years. "Improvisation, arbitrariness, lack of ideas, that is, the continuity of the former authority, are the main characteristics of the Ministry's work in the first three months," the union's president Vinko Filipovic told a news conference. Filipovic believes the education authorities should resolve existing problems in the school system before tackling a new education concept, for which, he claims, neither financial nor personnel or programme conditions exist. Filipovic also recalled the fact that Croatia is a country which earmarks the least funds from its Gross National Product for education (3.22 percent) of all European countries, as well as that schools still work in several shifts, that there is a lack of gyms, and that classes have too many students. "Croatia's school system does not correspond with Europe because the relationship of the former and the current authorities toward the school system was and is anti-European," Filipovic said. (hina) mm rml